Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「City of The Dead」

The Hiruku Theocracy.

One of the four countries that occupied the Northern Continent peninsula…… the birthplace of the Hiruku religion.

Although it shared a border with the Great Leburan Empire, the terrain allowed the two nations to develop in relative harmony.

A narrow channel, which flew into the Beak Sea, divided the southwestern region of the continent.

The Rooteos Mountain Range walled off the southeastern section of the peninsula.

The mountain range spread to the base of Mount Arthus, which housed a ma.s.sive mithril deposit, and it was where the Holy city Arthus had been built.

This place was also the capital of the Arthus Holy Kingdom which previously ruled this region before the current pope arrived. The center of the city referred to as the “ancient city” be the residents, carried a considerable amount of history.

In this world, the constant territorial battles, monster onslaughts and wars meant that human cities remained in a continual state of flux.

However, when the Hiruku religion began to spread among humans the technology to construct majestic churches, the symbol of a religion’s might, spread with it. Those techniques took root across the land, and elegant structures began popping up in every kingdom.

Many of the building built in those early days remained, dominating the landscape of the historic center of the holy city.

The most remarkable building was the ma.s.sive cathedral, which remained in use till this day, that the rest of the historic district was built around.

The ma.s.sive cathedral was surrounded by several magnificent bell towers so grand that they could be seen from outside the city walls.

The old city district should’ve been a beauty to behold, but now it was littered with mountains of debris from once beautiful buildings.

The Holy City, which was the foundation of the Hiruku religion…… the downtown area of Arthus was abandoned, the populace’s absence giving the city the atmosphere of a vast ruin.

A couple conspicuous individuals stood among the ruins dominated by silence.

Their exact height was unknown, but they easily stood over fifty meters tall…… Their height made the buildings around them look like toys.

They were giants in every sense of the world.

The giants I met on the southern continent were dwarves compared to them.

The surface of the giants was made out of an amorphous ma.s.s of human bodies. Their bodies seemed to have been created similarly to the monstrous form of Cardinal Charos.

In all likelihood, their bodies were made from the residents of the Holy City.

It was unknown if all of the city’s inhabitants fell victim to the giants, but even if there was no one left, we should refrain from blowing the giants and the city sky high, except as a last resort.

It was beyond expectation that the pope was capable of creating such monstrosities.

We’d spent three days preparing for the liberation of Salma’s capital, perhaps that grace period had given him enough time to make them.

However, there was no point in worrying about that now.

The Holy City Arthus had been destroyed…… that was the fact at hand.

The liberation of Larissa had progressed smoothly under the leadership of the Margrave and with the a.s.sistance of the elven warriors and the Blade Heart Clan.

Also, Rione was being swept clean of the undead and the survivors were being cared for.

Although only a handful of survivors remained in Rione, a considerable number of Larissa’s citizens had managed to escape the hands of the undead.

Still, according to the Margrave less than a third of the city’s population had survived.

To say that a large number of survivors was problematic in its own right was an understatement. The n.o.bles especially made a ruckus until Margrave Branier, with the backing of the elves and beastmen, stripped them of their power.

Afterward, at the risk of those who didn’t have a favorable opinion of the Margrave causing trouble, the majority of the forces sent to liberate Larissa were transferred to the Holy City.

According to Dylan, the number of elves and soldiers left behind should be enough to maintain order under martial law.

The people of this world were still people, and more problems arose after they were freed from the undead occupation.

As per Dylan’s suggestion, we performed the Larissa operation after two days of preparation and one day of rest, and I scouted the Holy City with Ferufivisurotte like before.

The purpose was to set a transfer location for our troops and to inspect the enemy’s forces.

At the time, I was only close enough to see the outskirts of the city, and there hadn’t been any sign of the giants towering over the city.

Their bodies would’ve been visible from our position outside the city.

No matter how much power the pope had, it was hard to believe that he could create such monsters within a day.

If he were capable of such a thing, he wouldn’t have stayed in Delfuento like he had. Just whipping up a giant out of the capital’s residents would’ve been more beneficial to his conquest.

Considering that──

When I came to draw the coordinates for 【Transfer Gate】, I went out of my way to make sure the pope didn’t detect us, having Ferufivisurotte land far away from the city and covering the remainder of the distance with 【Dimensional Step】.

Because of that, I was unable to scout the city from the sky and stayed at a distance from the city walls. At the time, I only saw countless undead soldiers stationed outside the city.

At that time, the giants could’ve been underground or laying down.

《I’ve been alive for a while, but this is the first time I’ve ever had such a bad feeling about something……》

In her dragon form, which was larger than the giants, Ferufivisurotte unleashed an unpleasant growl from the depths of her throat.

I was currently riding on Ferufivisurotte’s back as she flew over the Holy City on a reconnaissance mission.

While dragon king instinctively disliked the undead, she seemed genuinely upset by the giants’ presence.

Even at such a distance away from the holy city the giants’ skin visibly seemed to fester…… they appeared to have cognitive thought as they craned their necks to follow our movement.

Large holes in their heads acted as the giants’ facial features. Despite being sculpted from human flesh, they only had eerie and inorganic expressions.

“What a horrible figure……”

“Kyun! Kyun!”

I uttered my disdain for the flesh giants towering over the holy city and Ponta, while coiled around my neck growled at them.

“I’d like to take in more of the city, but there’s a possibility that those giants have antiaircraft abilities…… Ferufivisurotte-dono──”

There wasn’t much else we could obtain from this observation, but while I was in the middle of speaking, Ferufivisurotte shifted her wings and began her descent.

《Lets see what happens when we enter the boundary, hang on.》

Our alt.i.tude rapidly decreased as Ferufivisurotte spoke, the giants’ bodies gradually growing in scale.

When the giants detected our movements, black spheres formed in front of the gashes that were the giants’ mouths.

Dooh!!

《Huh!?》

The black spheres suddenly grow to a size proportionate to the giants’ body, before they were fired directly at Ferufivisurotte with ludicrous speed.

Ferufivisurotte managed to dodge the attacks, but after the spheres reached the height of their arc, they hit the ground far away from us. The impact zone was eroded by “something,” and the landscape was twisted into something unrecognizable.

The thought of being hit by that caused me to tremble uncontrollably and even Ferufivisurotte let out a surprised shout after witnessing the results the attack produced.

《I never heard of something directly spreading the death impurities!?》

The “death impurities” she spoke of was a strange aura that the undead possessed. Elves were capable of seeing it, but I don’t have that ability.

However, the black spheres the giants fired and the effect they had on the impact zone were clearly visible to me.

The fact that I could suddenly see the “death impurities” meant that it was in a higher concentration than usual.

I really didn’t want to know what coming into contact with such potent “death impurities” would do to me.

I really didn’t want to know what coming into contact with such potent “death impurities” would do to me.

Ponta, who’d tightened her hold around my neck, began crying to get our attention.

“Kyun! Kyun!”

At Ponta’s prompting, I turned back around to see the giants slowly crushing the city beneath their feet as they simultaneously headed towards us and fired more of those black spheres.

Dooh! ! Dooh! ! Dooh! !

The giants fired consecutive volleys of black spheres at Ferufivisurotte. While the a.s.sault was unexpected, she managed to gracefully dodge and weave her way through their attacks.

However, the sudden bucking caused me to lose my grip on her back, and I was sent spiraling towards the ground.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Kyuuuuuuuuunn!!”

I somehow managed to right myself as I free fell towards the ground and began looking for a safe spot to transfer to within the city.

However, it wasn’t easy to focus on a single location as I spiraled downwards at such high speeds. As the earth approached and I prepared myself for the last ditch effort, I was suddenly hit from the side. When I looked around, I locked eyes with Ferufivisurotte’s reptilian pupils.

《I’m sorry, Arc-han. Please put up with this until we get to safety.》

Ferufivisurotte had managed to catch me in her mouth as I fell. It must’ve looked like I was in the middle of being eaten by a dragon.

Although I breathed a sigh of relief, the giants’ a.s.sault hadn’t ended.

The two giants worked in tandem to launch another volley of black spheres towards Ferufivisurotte, which prevented her from ascending to a safe alt.i.tude.

Occasionally, Ferufivisurotte created orbs of light similar to those she used in our match and used them to intercept the black spheres as well as attack the giants.

Large holes appeared when the Dragon King’s light orbs managed to strike bodies of the giants, but they were immediately filled in by pulsating flesh.

Their regenerative ability was incredibly high.

The black spheres had quite a bit of power behind them as they managed to cancel out the light orbs. Not even Ferufivisurotte could surpa.s.s the giants’ onslaught.

When I saw one of the black spheres slip by her defenses, I instinctively cast a protective spell on Ferufivisurotte.

“【Holy Protection】!!”

Once the spell was cast, a dazzling light spread from my body and covered the dragon king in a membrane of light.

The next moment, the black sphere slammed into Ferufivisurotte’s flank and dispersed upon contact, the remnants of the sphere being blown away with a single flap of her wings.

The giants’ a.s.sault lightened, and they stopped their pursuit when the sphere hit Ferufivisurotte. Not letting the opportunity slip by, she ascended and put some distance between the giants and us.

Once we were out of their range, the giants ceased their attack.

Once we were out of their range, the giants ceased their attack.

Heaps of debris laid at the giants’ feet as a result of their movement during the battle. If there were survivors before there was no way to save them now.

Ferufivisurotte suddenly called out to me as I pondered over the troublesome enemies.

《Arc-hon, you saved me back there.》

Ferufivisurotte sudden show of grat.i.tude while I was still in her mouth drew my attention away from the giants.

【Holy Protection】was a Holy Knight support skill which multiplied the curse and darkness resistance of my allies. Despite taking the attack, she seemed perfectly fine.

Was the curse resistance that effective?

It seems that the skill managed to counteract the “death impurities” from the attack.

The shining membrane covering her body had been destroyed by the giants’ attack and she was back to normal now.

“My 【Holy Protection】 can only defend against one impurity attack, the protection is extinguished afterward.”

The eerie voids that were the giants’ eye continued to track our movements as we flew further and further away.

They would be the most significant obstacle in capturing the holy city.

An ordinary person would die after being hit by one of those black sphere attacks.

“Even preventing one blow is a big deal. If Willi-hon and I take them on, can you kill the ringleader who created them, Arc-hon?》

Ferufivisurotte made that proposal as she glanced back at the ghostly figures of the giants.

It’s true that she and the other dragon king could do that.

I thought about using a Heavenly Knight skill to deal with the giants, but if Ferufivisurotte took part in the battle, although she would level the playing field, she might be caught up in the annihilation attack. There was also the possibility that the Holy City wasn’t completely abandoned.

Even with the damage the giants caused by walking, there was a slim chance that the survivors were alive, but that hope would be extinguished if I unleashed a Heavenly Knight skill.

I nodded in agreement with Ferufivisurotte’s proposal and asked her to return to the base camp outside the Holy City.

Recognizing the need to plan out our a.s.sault on the Holy City, she took countermeasures against the giants as her large wings flapped harder, and we headed towards our destination.

I crossed my arms and groaned at the fact that we didn’t see Huriku’s pope.

Was that ma.s.sive cathedral the stronghold he hid in or did he already flee?

Due to the mysterious nature of the pope, it was possible that he was one of the giants…… we couldn’t just allow an undead giant to do as it pleased.

In any case, we needed to liberate the city from the hands of the undead.

I thought of such things while remaining in Ferufivisurotte’s mouth as she returned us to the southeastern region outside of Arthus.